


lavender (loyalty, love, devotion)

by selenestarflower



Series: Cassiopeia Potter Throws A Wrench Into Things [7]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/F, Ron Weasley Bashing, Set in fourth year, Sort Of, all fluff, in the Cassiopeia Potter Throws a Wrench Into Things Universe, nothing but fluff and awkward flirting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-29
Updated: 2020-12-29
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:42:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28397892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/selenestarflower/pseuds/selenestarflower
Summary: a one-shot from Lavender's point of view about Cassie flirting in Victorian Flower Language. Set in fourth year. Floriography flirting! What fun!
Relationships: Harry Potter/Hermione Granger (minor), Lavender Brown & Parvati Patil, Lavender Brown/Cassiopeia Potter
Series: Cassiopeia Potter Throws A Wrench Into Things [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/915030
Kudos: 8





	lavender (loyalty, love, devotion)

**Author's Note:**

> None of this will directly appear in the yet unwritten fourth installment of Cassiopeia Potter Throws a Wrench Into Things, but there may be references to these events from different points of views.

Acacia (secret love):

It starts simple. 

Lavender comes back to the dorm after classes and there's a flower on her bedside table. A yellow sprig of little disc-shaped flowers. It's beautiful.

She asks Hermione if she knows how it got there. She says she doesn't.

But the little flower is gorgeous, and Lavender takes it to Professor Sprout to ask what it is.

"That there is yellow acacia," she is told.

She wears it behind her ear for two days.

She doesn't notice the way Cassiopeia Potter blushes.

Lavender Heather (admiration) and Motherwort (secret love): 

A week later, Lavender finds a little bouquet tied with a purple ribbon. Two very similar column shaped plants. A blushy pinky purple--really more of a lavender--plant, and a dusty white and brown stem with little leaves springing from the flower. She takes them to Neville Longbottom this time. 

Neville takes the bouquet and squints at the flowers. 

"This lavender one here," he said, pointing, "is heather. It's all over the hills up here in the spring."

Lavender remembers and nods. 

"The other one is motherwort. Common motherwort. It's an herb in the mint family." 

Lavender takes the bouquet back and cherishes it.

She begins to wonder (and hope) who the flowers are from, and question how a boy had gotten in the girls dorm.

White Camellia (you're adorable):

The third time, she finds a tiered looking white flower, triangular petals sticking out into a fluffy cloud.

It is left tucked by the stem into one of her books.

Parvati comments that she's got a secret admirer.

Harry Potter says he thinks someone's flirting with Lavender in Victorian Flower Language. 

She asks him if he knows what the flower is. He shakes his head.

"I don't know how to identify flowers. I just know some of the meanings."

So Lavender brings the white flower to Neville again. He tells her it's white camellia.

She asks Harry if he knows what it means. He just hands her a book he got from the library on Victorian Flower Language.

When evening hits, Lavender and Parvati huddle on Lavender's bed and draw the curtains to look at the book.

"Lumos," Parvati whispers, "Lavender, do you have the first two flowers?"

Lavender pulls out the now withered acacia, and the drying bouquet.

Parvati flicks the book open. 

"The first one was yellow acacia," Lavender says.

"Mhm," Parvati skims the pages, running a finger down the list, "oh! Here. Yellow acacia: secret love."

Lavender smiles a bit.

"Okay," Parvati says, turning to look at Lavender, eyes glittering, "what's next?"

"Heather."

"Got it."

A moment passes as Parvati flips through the book. Outside, Lavender could hear Hermione and Cassie whispering.

Lavender wondered what they were talking about. Cassie seemed...distressed? Or excited?

Parvati interrupts Lavender's pondering of the younger Potter twin.

"What kind of heather?"

"What?" Lavender hisses back.

"It has multiple meanings," Parvati says, "what color?"

"Lavender."

Parvati stares at her for a beat. She shakes her head and looks down at the book.

"It means admiration. Or solitude, but they probably meant admiration."

"Nice," Lavender says quietly.

Parvati smiles.

"Okay," Parvati says, "next one?"

"Motherwort,"

"Mhm," Parvati hums, "okay, motherwort is secret love again. So like a secret admirer I guess?"

"Yeah," Lavender breathes

"Who do you think it is?" Parvati looks curiously at her.

"I don't know," Lavender says, "but there's one more." 

She lifted the camellia.

"White camellia."

"Okay," Parvati skims through the list again, flipping back a few pages.

"It means, 'you're adorable'-" Lavender giggles, "or 'perfected loveliness'." Parvati continues, flashing a grin at Lavender.

"Wow," Lavender says, feeling warm, "That's kind of sweet, but also kind of weird. I wish I knew who they were. I mean! How could a boy get in the girls dorm?"

Parvati stares at her.

"What if it’s not a boy, Lavender?" Parvati asks

Lavender's cheeks darken.

"I-I guess, I just-"

"If you don't like girls, then just take the flowers and wait until they make a move."

"No! I mean it's not that, I-"

Parvati grabs Lavender's shoulders.

"You're going to keep everyone up, hush. And it'll be fine. Just wait, and if it's someone you don't like, then don't date them!"

"You're right, I'm being stupid,"

Parvati twists her lips to one side.

"Although Cassie knows Victorian Flower Language. Remember first year?"

Lavender shudders.

"How could I forget? Anyway-"

She stares at Parvati.

"You don't mean to say-"

Parvati smirks. 

"Don't think I haven't noticed how you look at her. She's  _ pretty _ isn't she? Anyway, goodnight, Lavender."

Lavender sits with her mouth hanging open while Parvati scoots out of her bed and heads off to change. 

Red Tulip (declaration of love) and Gardenia (you're lovely):

The next morning Lavender can't stop looking at Cassie. Down the table at breakfast, while Cassie throws a piece of bacon at Hermione. Across the aisle in Charms while she spins her wand like a top. At lunch while she laughs at something Harry says.

Parvati is right; Cassie is pretty. And in hindsight, Parvati is also right about the way Lavender looks at her. 

_ Oh gosh _ . Lavender has never looked at a boy that way. 

She is sitting in the mostly empty common room, pondering Cassiopeia Potter, when said girl approaches.

"Hey Lavender," she says looking awkward, "I just thought I should tell you I am the one leaving flowers for you. And, uh. Give you these."

Cassie holds out a bouquet of red tulips and another red flower, rose-like, but definitely not a rose. Lavender smiles, and reaches out to take them.

"They’re beautiful," she says, looking up toward Cassie, who is looking to the side. Her bright green eyes snap toward Lavender.

"Really?"

"Yeah. What do they symbolize?"

Cassie’s lips twitch upward. 

"You have a book of the Language of Flowers don't you?"

"Yes," Lavender says.

Cassie smirks, and Lavender's heart skips a beat. 

"Look it up yourself then," Cassie says, and runs off to the portrait hole. She pauses.

"You look really nice in red," she says awkwardly.

Lavender beams. Cassie ducks out the portrait hole.

Lavender looks the meaning up later. A declaration of love, and a complement.  _ You're lovely _ . 

She presses the bouquet to her heart.

Then she grabs the book on the Language of Flowers and gets to work.

White Carnation (yes) and Ambrosia (your love is reciprocated):

Lavender leaves the bouquet on Cassie’s bedside table with a little piece of stationary with her signature.

She put together white carnations, and ambrosia, a red column-shaped flowering plant.

She isn't in the dorm when Cassie finds the bouquet, but Parvati is.

"She cried," Parvati tells her later, "she looked at the bouquet and cried. When Hermione asked her what happened she said 'Lavender likes me," and shut herself in her bed."

Lavender is happy. But she doesn't say anything else, or make a move, and neither does Cassie, for a while.

Ivy Geranium (your hand for the next dance)

Ronald Weasley ended up asking her to the Yule Ball. Lavender says yes out of pity. The boy put off asking anyone much too long. 

He'd even tried asking Hermione, for some reason. She'd turned him down. She is going with Harry Potter.

So Lavender puts up with Ron complaining that she smells like hair product, and puts up with him slouching his way down to the Great Hall in his hand-me-down robes that he hates, very vocally.

And she puts up with him stepping on her feet while they dance. And the longer she spends with him the more she wants to run off and dance with Cassie.

In the middle of the song, Cassie comes up.

"May I cut in?" She asks, and holds out a sprig of ivy geranium. Lavender has been studying flowers. So she smiles. 

"Of course!" She says.

Cassie lowers her head and smiles.

"I'll let you finish up with your date."

Lavender snorts, and tucks the ivy geranium into her bun, turning back to Ron.

Red Camellia (you're a flame in my heart):

She escapes from him after that dance, and heads off to the sidelines, where Cassie is waiting. 

Lavender notices as Cassie grabs her hand and they head back onto the dance floor, that Cassie has a flower tucked into her full-skirted red tulle dress. It blends in enough that at first Lavender though it was just part of the dress.

Cassie reaches up and unpins it from the strap of her bodice.

She pins it to Lavender's pink dress. 

"Red camellia," she says, and they begin to dance.

Cassie spins Lavender--despite her shorter stature--and adds, "'you're a flame in my heart'."

Lavender beams.

Mistletoe (kiss me) and Aster (symbol of love):

They dance for several more songs before they speak again. 

"Did you feel bad for him?" Cassie asks.

"Ron?" Lavender replies, "Yeah, I did. That's why I said I would be his date for the Yule Ball."

Cassie nods thoughtfully. 

Lavender catches sight of Harry and Hermione over Cassie’s shoulder. 

"Your brother looks happy," she notes

Cassie glances behind her.

She snorts, "Oh yeah, he's taken with her. They're  _ such _ a cute couple. Oh, and he danced with Luna Lovegood earlier too."

"Ahh," Lavender smiles wickedly.

Cassie looks back at her and grins.

"I brought something for you, too," Lavender realizes, and pulls out the flower tucked into her handbag. Cassie smiles.

"So," Lavender says, "will you be my date to the Yule Ball?"

Cassie grins wider.

"Yeah. Will you be my girlfriend?"

Lavender's heart leaps, and she laughs.

"You can't upstage me like that!"

"Get used to it!"

Lavender tugs on Cassie’s wrist and turns her around. 

"What are you doing?" She asks.

"Saying yes," Lavender replied, and tucked the purple aster into Cassie’s braid crown, next to her ear.

Cassie spins around and beams.

"How do I look?" She asks.

"Perfect," Lavender replies.

They begin dancing again.

"Oh look, mistletoe," Cassie says.

"What's that mean again?" Lavender asks with a grin.

Cassie rolls her eyes.

"Kiss me," she replies.

Lavender dips her under the mistletoe and takes her up on that. 

**Author's Note:**

> Terribly sorry if I butchered floriography, and sorry if there's any incorrect tenses, I usually write in past tense.


End file.
